Multiphase images of a powerful supernova-driven wind in the early Universe

ABSTRACT Galactic winds are considered a likely driver of rapid quenching in early massive galaxies, but until now there has been no direct evidence that such systems drive winds powerful enough to meaningfully suppress their star formation. We present resolved cold gas and ionized gas observations of a powerful supernova-driven wind in a massive galaxy 1.1 billion years after the Big Bang (at z = 5.3). The outflow, likely triggered by ongoing merger activity, is removing gas at twice the rate of star formation and could plausibly eject all the cold gas from the galaxy within 100 Myr. Our results suggest that powerful merger-driven outflows may be a key mechanism to produce abundant massive quiescent galaxies in the early Universe when a large fraction of massive galaxies is interacting. The mass and energetics of this distant outflow are consistent with nearby starburst-driven superwinds, suggesting that the efficiency of stellar feedback has remained relatively constant over the last 12 billion years of cosmic history.